1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to online transactions, and in particular, to placing orders online.
2. Related Art
Ordering ahead of time provides consumers the advantage of not having to wait for an order to be ready. Ordering can be physical goods, drinks, food, etc. For example, a consumer can call a restaurant to order food to go or a consumer can place an online order for goods or a food order. After ordering, the consumer may go to a physical location to pick up the ordered items.
However, phone orders can be cumbersome and costly because the consumer needs to find and dial a number, talk to a person, which may take a while if the person is busy, and/or have the order misunderstood. The payee (e.g., a restaurant) incurs costs for having a person be available to answer and take orders from the consumer, as well as lost profits or revenue with incorrect orders.
Online orders alleviate some of these disadvantages. However, the consumer may feel that online ordering is too time-consuming, especially for regular or repeat orders the consumer makes to the same merchant or retailer. Some sites allow the user to save previous orders for simplified repeat ordering, but this does not help users who are away from their computers and may only have their mobile device. Due to the small data input (keypads) and screens, it may be difficult for the user to access the merchant site, log into the consumer's account, and navigate to find the ordering page.
Therefore, a need exists to provide the consumer an easier way to place orders.